Red Tarmac is Not a Pedestrian Crossing

This one really gets on my nerves while out on the road it's so frequent something should be done about it.

Yesterday I was driving in part of a road with a very sharp bend and a long blind spot. A couple of hundred yards from this is a strip of red tarmac across the road to a park. Kids from the local schools are all over this road either on their bikes or free ranging across it while they make their way to and from school, they often treat the red tarmac as a pedestrian crossing.

Knowing this and because of the road conditions I'm already slowing down before I get there but yesterday, once again, a bunch of young kids, no more than 10ish were standing at the side of the road.

I saw one stare right at my face ... hesitate ... lurch forward ... stop ... and then run out into the middle of the road and stopped on this red tarmac, I slammed on the breaks as he skipped to the other side and then his mates, just as I start to crawl forward follow him giving me a lot of mouth.

I leaned out of the car and told them it was not a crossing and not to run out in front of cars. I got a lot of mouth about how it was a crossing, they can cross anywhere they like and it's called a crossing. I repeated myself saying it's not a pedestrian crossing they shouldn't run out in front of cars. So more lip came and waving me away dismissively etc, by now more cars were behind me but they could get past and I wasn't fussed about them. I kept repeating myself until they went, I'm not going to be bullied by children.

When I got home I went to check the status of Red Tarmac, I knew there wasn't any prior legal status as a pedestrian crossing so thought it might have changed since I last checked. It hasn't, it's still not a pedestrian crossing and pedestrians have no right to expect a vehicle to stop to allow them to cross.

The problem is a lot of adults think these are pedestrian crossings and are teaching it to the kids. The councils sometimes use red tarmac as a suggestion of where to cross, but not as a proper pedestrian safe crossing, which is just an horrendous accident waiting to happen.

The councils don't care until someone is killed and the schools don't seem to worry about road safety the way they used to. Which leaves road users of all kinds in a lot of trouble because had I hit those kids you can bet your life I'd be the one done for injury or manslaughter.

Sorry for the rant but I thought it might help someone else unsure of the red tarmac, I really wish they wouldn't use this stuff like this it's not it's true purpose.